december 13, 2000 This is it! The end of the .au portion of this trip, and a return home to .az! First thing in the morning was a bus to the airport, checked in, dumped the luggage, and headed for the last go around in the duty free shops.

The flight was direct from Sydney to LA, and uneventful, as flying should be, 13 hour trip through the night, or day, or both (it gets confusing crossing date lines). Upon landing in LA, I got my first handful of drab old US dollars, and sunk my teeth into as American as you can get breakfast, McDonalds.

From here it is a one hour hop over to Phoenix, and on a clear day (as there are many of them), nothing rivals the flight over the open desert and ranges that reveals every tiny landscape detail at 20,000 feet. I could easily see the Mogollon Rim and San Francisco Peaks covered in snow, and picked out local mountains such as the Harquehalla and Eagle Tail ranges.

And finally I touched down home in the desert where Natalie was there waiting to greet me. And so was a little elf at home, Skamper, who recogizned me after 4 months.

So that is the whole show. The last thing to do is write my summary report of the trip before the details all fades away.